Confidence among Japan’s biggest manufacturers is at an 11-year high, a key Bank of Japan survey showed yesterday, as the world’s number-three economy picks up pace.
The central bank’s Tankan report — a quarterly survey of more than 10,000 companies — showed a reading of 25 among major manufacturers in its survey for this month, the highest since its December 2006 poll.
The report, the broadest indicator of how Japan Inc is faring, marks the difference between the percentage of firms that are upbeat and those that see conditions as unfavourable.
The mood among major manufacturers has now risen for a fifth straight quarter.
Buoyed by a favourable outlook, the firms said they plan on average to boost capital spending by 10.2 percent year-on-year, the survey showed.
The index for non-manufacturers came in at 23, unchanged from the previous survey in October. This is the highest level since the final quarter of 2015.
The upbeat survey underscores how Japan’s prospects have been improving on strong exports, with investments linked to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics also giving the economy a shot in the arm.
“The strong reading reflects major manufacturers’ sound performance, thanks to brisk demand in the global economy,” NLI Research Institute economist Tsuyoshi Ueno said.
However, he added that firms “remain cautious about various risks including geopolitical concerns over North Korea and the Middle East.”
The report is a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who swept to power in late 2012 on a pledge to cement a lasting recovery in the once booming economy with a growth plan dubbed “Abenomics.”
The scheme — a mix of aggressive monetary easing and huge government spending along with reforms to the economy — fattened corporate profits and sent the stock market higher.
However, it has failed in its goal of shrugging off the deflation that has plagued Japan for years and held back growth.
Japan’s latest inflation rate of 0.8 percent is still nowhere near the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, despite years of record monetary easing.
However, the economy expanded by 0.6 percent in the July-to-September period, posting its longest string of gains in more than two decades.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS